Shnookums
by ekc293
Summary: In which Castle and Beckett discuss pet names. Oneshot, sickeningly fluffy, established Caskett relationship set somewhere in the future.


Howdy there! I figured since I gave you such angst with _The Cliché, _I should counteract that with some serious fluff. Seriously, this is so fluffy it will may your teeth hurt.  
><strong>Disclaimer<strong> - I don't own Castle. Really, I don't.

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><p>Rick and Kate were curled up in bed, having spent the night encased in each other's arms. It was early on a Monday morning, and Kate had been given the day off after a particularly grueling case. She had went over to Rick's house the night before. Her loving boyfriend had made her a lovely dinner consisting of multiple courses and followed by decadent chocolate cake. She told him that if he kept feeding her that way, she was going to gain 50 pounds. He laughed and told her that she'd still be the most beautiful woman in the world.<p>

They spent the rest of the night curled up on Rick's couch, listening to old out-dated love songs that they still knew all the words to.

Sometime around 2 in the morning, they had managed to change into more comfortable clothes and fell asleep.

Kate knew that it was early, but she couldn't make herself fall asleep again. She started to move to get out of bed and start a pot of coffee, but Rick just tightened his arms around her.

"Rick?" she murmered quietly. Even though she was up and moving, she knew that Rick would want to keep sleeping. She kept her voice low, in hopes that after he let go of her, he would still be tired enough to fall back asleep.

"Mm..." he sighed, still not opening his eyes. He did, however, continue to pull Kate a little closer towards his chest, "Yes, baby?"

That woke her up. Kate's eyes snapped open and pulled away from her human pillow.

"What did you just call me, Castle?"

As soon as Rick heard the shift in the tone of her voice, he knew something was wrong. And Rick hadn't heard Kate call him Castle outside of the Precinct in months. His eyes immediately snapped open and he answered defensively.

"I... I called you... baby?"

Kate pulled away from him completely. She sat up in their bed and pulled the sheets tight around her. Even dressed in Rick's dress shirt from last night, she still found the apartment to be a little chilly in the mid-December weather. She looked down at him with an icy glare.

"Don't call me baby."

If there was one thing Katherine Beckett did not do, it was pet names. Nicknames? Yes, occassionally. But pet names? Never.

Rick propped himself up on his side, gazing at her with what he hoped was forgiveness in his eyes.

"Then..." he said quietly, "What do I get to call you?"

She continued to stare at him as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Kate."

"Come on!" he pouted, "I'm a writer! Can't I call you something other than 'Kate'?"

"No..."

"Babe?"

"No."

"Honey?"

"No."

"Sweetie?"

"No."

"Shnookums?"

She couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped through her lips, "What?"

While he had been throwing out pet names he had creeped closer to her. He reached his arm out and wrapped it around his girlfriend's tiny waist and tugged on it. Pleased that she let him do that, he pulled her down into the comfort of his arms.

"Snuggle bunny?"

"No."

"Kissy buns?"

"No."

"Huggly monkey?"

"Never."

"Sugar lips?" As he spoke the words, he puckered his lips and made an absurd face.

She was laughing so hard she couldn't even keep her eyes open, eternally grateful that Alexis had left for school an hour earlier (she wouldn't want to wake her up). Her words tumbled from her lips before she could stop them, "Absolutely not!"

"Come on, Kate!" he moaned again, although considerably less annoyed after hearing her laugh. "Why are you so against pet names?"

She countered his question with one of her own. "Why are you so insistent I need one?"

He responded immediately, "because they're adorable!"

"'Huggly monkey' is adorable?" She responded, with a raised eyebrow.

"Alright..." he conceded, after a little thought, "that's not the best I could've come up with."

"You think?"

Rick playfully poked her side, which illicited a small giggle on her part. She tried to squirm away from him, but he held her tight.

"Seriously, Rick..." she said, "Isn't it enough that you get to call me Kate?"

Rick opened his mouth to respond but then quickly shut it, thinking about what she had just said. Was it simply enough for him to call her Kate? He quickly determined that indeed, it was.

It had taken them four years for them to get to the point where Rick was allowed to openly call her Kate. For the first two years of their partnership, he was only allowed to call her Beckett. Occasionally a 'Kate' would slip through, but she always just gave him one of her signature glares that told him that if he called her 'Kate' again in front of her co-workers, she was going to take out his knee caps.

In actuality, the more he thought about it, the more he realized how lucky he was to be able to call her Kate. The fact that she allowed him to call her anything other than 'Beckett' was just a reassurance of how far they had come. True, they were still partners and yes, he still did have to call her 'Beckett' when he shadowed her at the precinct, but they were so much more than that now. They're friends. They're best friends. And perhaps most importantly, they're together. Kate allowing Rick to call her 'Kate' proved that she was letting him in, that she trusted him, that she wanted to be with him.

So yes, in theory, calling her 'Kate' was enough.  
>But he was selfish.<br>And he wanted more.

"Yes," he said finally, "that is enough. But the thing is... Kate is your name. Meaning, everyone can call you that. The boys and your co-workers call you Beckett. Your dad gets to call you Katie. And you rarely go by Katherine by anyone outside of a legal setting. I just..." He propped himself up on his elbow so he could look directly into her eyes. "I just want to be able to call you something that no one else can. A name that's meant just for me." He saw Kate's eyes soften at his words, "I've waited too long for you to be just mine."

Kate knew falling in love with a writer was a terrible idea. No matter what he said, he always spoke his words in a way which made it hard for her to fight him. She tried to keep her face neutral but she was certain her eyes betrayed her true emotions."So what would you like my pet name to be?"

He played with her hair as he thought about it.

"Well..." he started, "it would have to be something simple. Something that rolls off the tongue quickly. Nothing really fancy. Something that gives you goosebumps." He moved his hands from her hair and ran them down her skin until he got to the hem of the shirt she was wearing. He then moved his hand back up until he was touching the planes of her stomach. "Let's let you decide."

Before she could register what he was doing, his fingers began to dance along her skin, his fingertips lightly grazing her skin. He leaned in close and whispered in her ear.

"Good morning, honey." She didn't react.

He ran his nose along her jawline, "How are you, dear?" Still, she kept her reactions in check.

He moved to kiss her nose, "You look beautiful today, darling."

He felt her shiver, but didn't feel the goosebumps he was looking for. He looked into her eyes and gave her a small smile. "Nope, not quite."

After she awarded him with a small smile in return, he returned to his game.

He leaned up and gently kissed her cheek, "Is there anything you want to do today, gorgeous?"

She shifted, rolling over to face him. She was blushing, but still no goosebumps.

He kissed her other cheek, "Really, beautiful? There's nothing you want to do today?"

He could feel her smiling as she shook her head, playing along with him.

Then Rick tilted her head and pressed his lips against her forehead. "You know what? I agree. There's nothing I'd rather do than spend the entire day in bed with you, love."

And goosebumps erupted over her skin.

Kate wasn't sure if it was his words, his hand caressing her abdomen, or the prospect of spending her day off in bed with him.

Regardless, there were worse things in life than having Rick Castle call her 'love', right?

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><p>This idea sprouted from one of my friend's and I talking about how Spanish has the most heartfelt pet names ever (<em>mi vida, mi cielo, mi amor<em>).  
>I don't really think I did the idea justice...<br>Do you know any other goosebump inducing pet names in languages other than English? I'd love to hear them! (:

Now... I need to go write thank you notes, because I wrote this instead of doing that and know my mother is angry at me. the things I do for you guys... ;)

As always; **Love it? Hate it? Let me know what you think (:**


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